Public Comment

"No one is quite willing to claim that adding some cents to the wholesale price of a can of soda pop will guarantee to reduce consumption enough to cause a statistically significant reduction in the incidence of diabetes, or even in the incidence of obesity. " - Editorial, Berkeley Daily Planet

With all due respect to your Coke-drinking ancestors, it was no accident that schools which used to have working drinking fountains to satisfy children's thirst began to sprout vending machines full of sugary drinks. And there is no question, as the tobacco industry and the sugary beverage industry (which are sometimes the same corporation) know, that young people's willingness to spend money on items like tobacco and sugary drinks takes a precipitous nosedive when such products get more expensive. 

Give our kids a chance, especially while their growing bodies are rapidly changing and they're doing their best to develop good habits. Vote to tax, and tax highly, products which ruin our health and increase the collective billions we're currently forced to spend on preventable health costs.